1] The NC Dept of Transportation created “NC Scenic Byways.” It’s available digitally at:http://www.ncdot.org/travel/scenic/  But, I like a hard copy.  Order at: NCDOT Scenic Byways Program, 1557 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1577. I sent a donation, well worth the $5 for many days’ pleasure.

[2] Our State Magazine has innumerable articles online plus in their monthly mag replete with places to visit [and eat] in NC.  It even has a NC travel app:  http://www.ourstate.com/app/  PS I tear out the print articles and save them, stored by regions.

[3] There are many travel guides.  I’m partial to: Touring the Western NC Backroads, by Caroline Sakowski.

 [4] Two tours of Watauga County [Boone area] are at: http://exploreboonearea.com/PlacestoPlay/HighCountryBackRoads/tabid/346/Default.aspx.  Print and dowloadable audio versions.

[5] Travel Ashe county to view the many barn quilts.  Info at:  http://www.ashecountyarts.org/BarnQuilt.htm

Who could not think rhododendron blossoms are divinely lovely!  I’ve been told to photograph only perfect flowers.  In this case, the unopened buds charmed me with their contrast in color, a reminder that beauty has more than one form, always changing.  First gloriously deep pink buds, later delicately pink blossoms.

Sh

Sharing our individual life experiences keeps us coming to the font of our friends and family.  Allow me to share a surprise in my own life.  One of the camera clubs I belong to held a public photo exhibit.  I hung two pictures.  What a delightful surprise for me to learn both sold!  This was one. [The other was the fawn elsewhere on this blog].  My daughter Lily says that selling my pictures makes me a professional photographer.  What a fun thought.  Technically, maybe so.  What I know is how much more I want to learn as a photographer.  This picture was taken along Rich Mountain Trail, above Trout Lake, on the Blue Ridge Parkway, NC; mp 294.

Fiddleheads are newly birthing ferns, emerging out of the ground after winter.  They are named fiddleheads because at this stage of their life they resembled the head of a fiddle, or violin.  They are edible, somewhat like asparagus.  Each emerges individually at its own pace and direction.

deer, blue ridge parkway, rich mountain trail

This herd of deer lives on Rich Mountain, above Trout Lake on the Blue Ridge Parkway, NC.  They may be descendants of the deer Mr. Cone imported to two Deer Parks on his estate.  It seems strange given our current abundance of deer to realize none were in the area at the time he constructed the estate.  Two seconds after I took this picture all the deer had alerted and bounded away through the woods.

Well, OK, not everyone might think this is an important local happening.  And I don’t usually throw myself a birthday party.  But this year the Parent to Parent fundraiser was scheduled for my birthday, May 1 so it seemed a logical conclusion to hold a birthday party at the event and invite my friends and family to come make a donation to Parent to Parent.  These are my daughters helping me celebrate.

Parent to Parent is an important local grassroots program that matches families who have similar challenges.  This year they held their first fundraiser May 1 at the Greenway in Boone.  It included a 5K race and this 1 mile fun walk.  This photo was taken at the turn-around point. Good luck, Parent to Parent!

The utilitarian purpose of this flower may indeed be to poison flies.  This flower is too lovely to bear its deathly name.  Let’s find a better one. 

For years as a Park Ranger, I had the most beautiful drive to work of anyone in the world, I believe.  Along the New River from Todd, then down the Parkway to Blowing Rock.  I took so many pictures of the foothills’ peaks intertwinned with mist and fog that I finally had to call a moratorium on myself.  Here’s a recent photo of the beauty that surrounds us daily, if we just take the time to see it.

The Trout lake ducks and drakes seem to enjoy their mornings sunning on this log, for they are often here.  Trout Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, mp 294